The Circular Corridor and Courtyards
SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) (Kazuyo Sejima born 1956; Ryue Nishizawa born 1966) · 2004
Once inside the glass you find yourself in a corridor that bends gently and never ends. On one side is the curved glass wall and the park beyond it; on the other are the white galleries, set at angles so that the corridor widens and narrows as you walk. The floor is polished and reflects the light. Every so often the wall opens into a courtyard, a square of sky and gravel enclosed by glass, where a tree grows or the Swimming Pool sits. There are no signs telling you which way to go, because every way eventually brings you back to where you started.
The architects built the plan as a diagram of freedom. A conventional museum has a route; this one has a field. Galleries of four different heights are placed so that from the corridor you can look diagonally through two or three of them to the far side of the building, and the courtyards act as light wells so that even the deep centre feels close to the outdoors. Look at the details: the glass meets the floor with no skirting, the ceiling is a plain white plane, and the furniture, including rocking chairs and the long benches, was chosen to be sat on for an hour rather than a minute. In the free zone you will also find Pipilotti Rist's lounge and the library.
SANAA's interest in blurring inside and outside became their trademark, seen later in the Louvre Lens in France and the Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio, but Kanazawa was the first at this scale. On a snowy winter day the corridor is the best place to be, watching flakes fall into the courtyards while you stay warm. Take the loop slowly. The building rewards the person who wanders rather than the one who reads the map.
Did You Know? There are four entrances and no signposted route; the architects wanted visitors to get pleasantly lost inside a circle.
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